Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places
by LadyLefaye
Summary: A love spell backfires, causing Buffy to lose her memory. The only way to solve her problem is to kiss her one true love. Set after the end of the series. ONE SHOT.


**A/N: **This was written for the fic on demand LJ community. Someone requested a fic where a character loses his/her memory. I'm gonna let the final pairing be a surprise. Hope you enjoy!

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Buffy fought the vampire attacking her with a fluid grace born of primal instinct. She did not need to think about which move should come next or how she would block his vicious blows…it came naturally to her. It wasn't until she was straddling her foe, a stake plunging towards his unbeating heart, that she finally snapped out of the trance-like state she had been in.

"Watch it now," Spike said with a growl, grabbing Buffy's wrist and yanking the stake out of her hand. "We're just sparring here, remember? Or did the amnesia affect your short-term memory too?"

"Sorry," Buffy said sheepishly, crawling off Spike and offering him a hand up. "I had no idea I'd react like that when you attacked me. To be honest, I didn't really think you guys were serious when you said I was some sort of bad-ass superhero vampire slayer."

"No worries…all's forgiven. It's in your blood, after all. I can't fault a Slayer for succumbing to her true nature. Just so long as you realize I was going easy on ya…on account of you being impaired and all."

"Of course," Buffy said with a grin. "And I'll be sure to give you a rematch and kick your ass again once I have my memories back."

"About that," Willow interjected. "I think I finally figured out what you did. From what I can tell, it's a modified Sleeping Beauty spell. But instead of falling asleep until you receive a kiss from your one true love, you've lost your memories. My guess is that everything will come back to you as soon as you kiss the person you're meant to be with."

"It's really quite impressive," Willow continued. "It looks like you were trying to circumvent the nasty side effects all together and just make a locator spell…which didn't go so well I'll admit…but for you to get the spell to work at all is amazing. I had to try my first spell dozens of times before I could get it to work, and then all I had was a lousy floating pencil. If I'd known you had such an aptitude for magic, I would have taught you some spells years ago."

"Perhaps, for all our sakes, it's better that you didn't," Giles said dryly. "It is not always the case that a backfiring spell has such…benign…effects."

Seeing the blank look on Buffy's face (a look that was mirrored by Dawn and Xander), Willow quickly interjected. "What he means to say is that we're lucky nobody got hurt."

"Yeah, but if he'd come right out and said that, he wouldn't be able to call himself a Watcher. Those poncy gits love to lord their so-called intelligence over us common folk."

"Come now…is that really necessary?" Giles asked as he glared at Spike.

"I call them like I see them," Spike replied with a toothy grin.

"You guys," Xander interjected. "I think you're missing the big picture. Buffy here needs to find her Prince Charming, and I for one, would like to be first in line to help."

"First in line to be kissed is more like it," Dawn teased.

"Yeah, that too," Xander grinned.

"He's got a point," Buffy said. "I might as well see if any of you guys are 'the one'. It's probably a lot simpler than trying to find a counterspell." Giving Xander an appraising look, she shrugged slightly before dragging him forward by his shirt and planting a kiss on his lips.

Xander stared at her in shock. "Well, I think I'm in love," he said as a silly grin spread across his face.

"Yeah, but apparently I'm not," Buffy replied, giving him a conciliatory pat on the back. "But I'm sure you'll find someone someday."

"Ah, if I had a dollar for every time a girl said that after kissing me, I'd be a rich man," Xander joked. Deep down he knew he wouldn't be the one. But at least he'd finally gotten to kiss Buffy after all these years! And they say dreams don't come true.

"So, who's next?" Buffy asked, scanning the people in the room. "I know this is a bit awkward, but you did say that you guys are some of my closest friends, so chances are it's one of you."

"I guess I'll go," Willow said nervously.

Buffy gave her an odd look. "But…you're a girl. I always thought Prince Charming would be…you know…a Prince. Princess Charming just doesn't have the same ring to it. I'm not gay, am I? I don't feel gay…I'd think I'd remember if I was gay, wouldn't I?" Buffy asked, a slight bit of panic tingeing her voice.

"Well, I've only ever seen you date guys, but you could be bi…you never know. I dated a few guys before I realized I like girls too."

"I guess you have a point," Buffy said reluctantly. With a wary look on her face, she walked over to Willow and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"Nothin', huh?" Willow asked.

"Nada," Buffy replied.

"Well, you can't blame a girl for trying," Willow said with a grin. "And in a situation like this, it really is best to rule out all possibilities."

"On that note," Buffy said as she turned towards Dawn, "I might as well get all the girls out of the way at once."

"Who, me!" Dawn squeaked. "No…no…no! Didn't anyone tell you? You're my sister…we're so not destined to be together in that way!"

Buffy stopped advancing towards Dawn immediately. "Ewww…yeah…I totally agree. I think if my 'one true love' is my sister, I'd rather not know that about myself," Buffy said with a grimace. "Thanks for the warning."

"Anytime," Dawn said with a weak smile.

Buffy was just about to ask who would be the next contestant, when the blond she had been sparring with grabbed her from behind and whispered "my turn" into her ear. Before she could utter a word of protest, Spike spun her around and began to kiss her soundly. After getting over the shock of the abrupt kiss, Buffy quickly warmed to the vampire's attentions. She wrapped her arms around his neck and began making small mewling noises, forgetting entirely about the other occupants of the room. Apparently this creature triggered some other primal instincts in her as well.

After several rounds of polite coughs had been duly ignored, Xander finally piped up and said, "Who would have thought that Spike would be Buffy's one true love? I hope I'm not the only one disturbed by this."

Buffy backed away from Spike, blushing furiously. "Sorry about that, guys," she said sheepishly. Then, after a moment's pause, she looked back up at the vampire who had just snogged her soundly.

"Did he just call you Spike? What kind of name is that, anyway?"

"The second we can get a moment's privacy, I'll be glad to show ya," he grinned cockily as he thrust his hips forward in a suggestive manner. Spike had long ago stopped hoping that Buffy would ever truly love him, but he'd certainly never turn down a good shag from her if she was willing.

Buffy grinned back at him. "Well, if I can't find my one true love, I think I could settle for my one true lust. That was one hell of a kiss!"

Giles sighed in frustration. "I'm glad you find this so amusing," he said irritably. "But I, for one, would like to have my Slayer back. Even if we now have other Slayers who are capable of fighting, it is not safe for you to go about without your memory. You are still the only true Slayer in many people's minds. And there are many creatures out there that bear you a grudge. Without your full abilities and experience to fall back on, you will be little more than an open target for those who might wish to settle a score. You can hardly get by on muscle memory alone."

"Cut the girl some slack," Spike growled. "It's not like she did this on purpose."

"I hate to join the rain-on-Buffy's-parade party," Willow said timidly, "but Giles does have a point. Buffy is a bit of a sitting duck without her memories. Being a Slayer kind of has that job hazard."

"Well, who else would be a good candidate for breaking the spell?" Dawn asked.

Giles let out another heavy sigh. "Much as I am loathe to admit it, if it's not anyone here, I suppose we shall have to give Angel a call," he said reluctantly. "Spike, did Angel happen to come with you to Europe, or were you stalking Buffy all by yourself this time?"

"Hey! I resent that! A fellow stops by to pay a friendly visit and he gets called a stalker. I swear, you people give me no respect."

"Respect has to be earned, Spike," Giles said in an icy tone.

"I've helped save the world…I died for you bloody ingrates. What else has a bloke got to do?"

"Fine…fine! You're right…and I do apologize. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude. One of these days, I'll be sure to throw a parade in your honor. But for now, I still need an answer to my question…did Angel accompany you on your trip? He could very well be the one who will break this spell."

"No…the wonder boy is still in LA," Spike grumbled sullenly.

"Well, we'll have to contact him…perhaps he could take the next flight out of LA…the Council would pay for the trip of course. Or maybe we should have Buffy go to him…."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Spike said. "He's shacking up with this bird Illyria now. You've probably heard something about her. She was one of these ancient demongod-types, supposedly asleep for the rest of eternity…yadayadayada…and some kook at Wolfram & Hart thought it would be a bright idea to wake her up. Well, she sort of hollowed out one of Angel's friends and took over her body during the whole reawakening process. Which is a shame…but what can you do?"

"I don't understand," Dawn interjected. "If this Illyria person killed one of Angel's friends, why are they together?"

"Well, as it turns out…once Illyria took over Fred's body, there was no going back. Since all of our attempts to kill her failed miserably, we decided to form a bit of a truce…she'd help us fight…we'd teach her how to survive in this world…that sort of thing. And then that big showdown in LA occurred, which pretty much killed all of Angel's friends, making him rather hard up for company. I certainly wasn't going to shack up with him, so that left Illyria. Odd thing is, once those two got past all the bitterness, they really were a perfect match. Bluish tint aside, she looks way too much like Fred for Angel to ever achieve that moment of perfect bliss…too many bad memories…so no worries there. And to top it off, she's beautiful, powerful and one hell of a shag. If she weren't so rough on her toys, I'd say the poof didn't deserve her."

"And at any time in your rambling are you going to come to a point?" Giles asked acidically.

"Just giving you a bit of back story, mate. No need to get your knickers in a twist. The point is…she's one powerful chit, and a bit on the possessive side. I can tell you from experience that she doesn't like to share. My guess is she wouldn't take too kindly to Angel traipsing half-way across the world to hook up with his ex-flame."

Giles was about to offer up some sort of counter argument about doing things for the good of mankind when Buffy decided to interject.

"What about you? I haven't kissed you yet."

Giles stiffened at the abrupt twist in the conversation, turning an indignant shade of red. "You…you can't be serious! It wouldn't be proper. I'm your Watcher…I'm supposed to act as a teacher and a mentor. Anything between us would be entirely inappropriate."

"So…you like to look, but not touch? A little kinky, but I'm sure I can work with that," Buffy said as she made her way towards him.

Giles continued to back up until he was pressed firmly against the wall. "Buffy…please! This isn't decent! Angel is a far more likely choice…you've loved him for years. So cease accosting me until after we've confirmed whether or not he can break the spell."

"Why start calling in people from across the ocean when we haven't even finished with the people in this room? Like Willow said, we have to rule out all possibilities. And I'm not too keen on calling down the fire and brimstone of a demon scorned, so pucker up, big boy." She grabbed him roughly by his tie (perhaps a little more roughly than necessary), forcing him to choose between being strangled or lowering his head. In the end, it really wasn't a hard choice to make.

As soon as Buffy's lips met his, she could feel the change take place. Her memories came rushing back in a warm flood. She was so lost in the sensation of actually being Buffy again, she didn't even notice that she was still kissing Giles until he began to gently push her away.

"Giles?" she said, her expression, which had been so brazen just moments earlier, now full of wavering uncertainty.

"Well, this is highly unexpected," he said softly, all of his anger seeming to drain out of him at the realization that he actually had been the one to break the spell after all.

"I don't understand," Buffy said, turning her questioning eyes towards Willow. "No offense, but I've never even thought about Giles that way. How can he be Prince Charming?"

"Well, the spell you cast, in any of it's forms, isn't about showing you who you love now…it's about showing you who will bring you the most happiness in the long run…who you are meant to be with when it's all said and done. You're actually quite lucky…if it had been someone you hadn't even met yet, things would have been a lot trickier. I'm not sure if I could have reversed the spell on my own. You're the only one who really knows what changes were made to the original spell…your notes are a bit vague on the details. That would have created a nice catch-22, given your amnesia and all."

Buffy turned back to Giles. "I'm really not sure what to do about this," she said quietly. "I'll admit, when I found that spell, I thought it would be an easy way to find a decent guy for once. I haven't had the best of luck with relationships. But I'm not really ready to jump into forever with someone just because of a spell, no matter how much I care about you. And…well…as bad as it may sound, I'm still young. I was hoping I'd get to…you know…sow a few more wild oats before settling down into the married life."

"Buffy, no one is saying that we have to run off and get married because of this. It is certainly not something I am prepared for. As Willow suggested, if this spell is accurate, it is more an indication of who you are meant to be with in the long run. You and I may both need to grow before we reach that point. And I will certainly not hold you to the decision of a spell gone awry. In light of what has happened, if such a time comes that you seriously desire a relationship with me, I promise I will at least consider the idea. Not that protesting did me any good in this case. I have never met a woman more capable of getting what she wants when she puts her mind to it. But, until such time, you are certainly free to sow as many wild oats as you like…so long as you don't begrudge me the right to do the same. I still have some youth left in me, after all."

"I so didn't need that mental picture!" Xander exclaimed, breaking the tension that had been building in the room with practiced ease. "Giles, if you could keep all talk of you and your…your oat-sowing to yourself, me and my sanity will thank you for it!"

"Hey…watch it buster! That may be my future husband you're talking about!" Buffy teased while also giving Giles' hand a soft squeeze, silently letting him know that she would consider what he had said.

"Well, given that you're still on the market," Spike interjected, "how's about I fulfill that promise to show you how I earned the name 'Spike'?"

Buffy looked him up and down suggestively before letting out a laugh. "You know, a little birdie told me that you earned that name by pinning people down with railroad spikes. Now, I'm no innocent schoolgirl…but I'm not that kinky!"

"You've been listening to the wrong birds, pet. What's say you give me the chance to set the story straight?"

"I'll consider it," Buffy said with a wink, "if you can beat me in a fair fight. I do owe you a rematch after all."

Spike didn't even bother voicing his acceptance of her offer, instead opting to clue her in by launching into an attack.

Buffy grinned as she flung him away from her, being careful to not hit any of her friends as they quickly scrambled to the sidelines. "I thought I said a fair fight, Spike!"

"You should know by now, luv…we vampires don't play fair!"

Buffy laughed as she lunged at him, the thrill of the fight filling her once again. As she planned her attack, she was still trying to decide whether or not she should go easy on him.

She did have those oats to sow after all.


End file.
